To Say Goodbye
by Being a Genius is a Drag
Summary: To have everything and have nothing. Realizing what there could have been, Kurama makes the last trek to say goodbye to an old friend. Slight HxK. Slight KxK. (That's if you squint.) You can look at it as friendship too though. R&R.


Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. Only this story.

Warning: Hints of BL/Shounen ai

Slight Hiei x Kurama, Slight Kuronue x Kurama (If you squint)

-

As if in allusion to an old memory, he found himself deep within the confinements of the same bamboo forest where he gained and lost everything. Wandering aimlessly as he did much those past few days, delving deeper without purpose. No direction of which he sought, no absolute goal lay ahead as he trod on soft yet dangerous and familiar grounds.

Entwined in long gentle fingers, fingers that were dangerous and ruthless to a fault,was a silver pendant with a garnet stone. A stone that held with it a history he would never know of for its master was long since gone. A special piece of a man he would never have the pleasure in hearing about now that the only one who could have enlightened him about it was but a mere memory.

Why he went back for it, he did not know. Why he kept it was more so a mystery of its own. Yet, somewhere within his subconscious laid his real reasons for keeping an artifact that was never his to keep.

He was a thief, legendary at best. Many of the treasures that could be found in the vast and plentiful dens he had secured in the Makai were taken without remorse. Many, if not all of them, were significantly worth more than any riches he could attain for himself in the human realm.

But none held meaning- true,raw meaning. Not like the one he soothed between his fingers did. And no treasure had ever made him feel truly as guilty for taking it as the single pendant of a thief did.

Only, the man was more than a thief. A friend, he accepted upon his death. But back then, a friend was all he could muster to understand. With the love and care he received from his human mother, he grew to learn about their emotions. Spending so much time with beings too wound up in their emotions for rationality, he learned more about himself and others than he had in comparison to centuries with his own kind.

And it was only now, far too late, that he understood, there laid the possibility for true companionship.

His legs ceased their movements, getting too close to a territory that he was not welcomed in. But that knowledge did not freeze him or make him fear going further along. Instead he feared what going to that place would very well do to him. The many of unpleasant feelings and memories it would invoke from him would render him undone and would force him to part from the only keepsake he had left of a man from a memory.

But he continued on, no time was better than the present now that he could go back and forth between the Makai and the Ningenkai freely. Day to day, he found himself coming back to this forsaken place, taking the pendant along and reluctantly choosing to leave before he could locate the very spot he was forced to part with a friend.

His mother was beginning to worry where he went day after day early to come back late. It was only very recently that he felt the need to wander to this region and did so only seldomly after Kuronue's immediate death. But at the time, it was to tragically and ruefully commemorate the fact that he accepted Kuronue a companion too late.

It was then that his memory roared vividly as he drew nearer and nearer to the area. His breath hitched and his heart seemed to stop beating altogether as everything he felt that day swept back into him as raw as the day it had happened.

Shock. Adrenaline. Confusion. Betrayal. Anger. Anticipation. Fear. Loss. _Hurt._

Shocked that Kuronue's pendant would break at such an untimely moment. Adrenaline from the rush of getting away unscathed. Confusion when his partner insisted risking his life for a pendant. Betrayal that Kuronue chose a pendant over leaving with him. Anger that his words were ignored. Anticipation that the inevitable would occur. Fear that it would. Loss over something he understood the moment it was taken from him. And hurt that it took him until then to figure that out.

He had willed himself then not to shed tears and he willed himself that he would never if he could not then. He came to a stop, where stray bamboo sticks stuck out from the ground in the position they were left in and where Kuronue rest underneath in the soil.

Kurama reminiscenced bitterly at the memory of when he first went back for Kuronue's body mindful that he was being sought out and hunted himself. Those bastards had left Kuronue impaled purposely, signaling their trophy and a warning to those who dared to venture in their territory. That they had killed one of the great Yoko Kurama's men.

It was then when he noticed the shining of a pendant which was held clutched within a tightly clasped fist. He first blamed the pendant for taking away Kuronue from him but it didn't take long for the truth to dawn on him.

Even in death, Kuronue protected the only thing that ever meant anything to him and that was what made the sole pendant that meant so much to the bat demon also mean so much to him. It spoke volumes and that was enough for him to understand.

He buried Kuronue in that same spot and fixed the bamboo sticks to their previous position atop his friend's grave despite that it wounded him to purposely make that reminder for himself. He did it for slight spite to Kuronue for dying on him for a pendant but it was mainly to remind himself of what he did not fight for that day.

So funny to think that the great Yoko Kurama would torture himself by setting up a forlorn and harrowing reminder for himself. To think that the great Yoko Kurama could have been wounded by the death of one of his men.

Bringing himself to the present and letting his fingers soothe over the garnet stone once more, Kurama brought himself down to his knees at the grave.

Emerald green eyes regarded the pendant in his fingers remembering the hassling and short lived days of absent minded killings he went through trying to relocate the pendant he lost when he "died". No one had really asked, but there was another reason why Kurama went to Yomi and asked for time to "find" fighters who could serve the Makai lord.

And he had kept it ever since.

He sighed reluctantly, realizing now that he had managed to drag himself to the grave, he would have to finally let go of the pendant. Moving dirt with his palms to carve a hole into the earth, he laid the pendant into the small crater. With a gentle voice, he spoke, "Kuronue, I believe it's time I return this to you."

Just before he could cover the pendant and encase it with dirt, a voice he hadn't expected revealed itself.

"So, this is what you've been doing."

Kurama whipped around, turning to find Hiei standing strongly a few feet away behind him, "Hiei!?" He was surprised, if not completely caught off guard. "I could have killed you just now" Hiei said dully, entailing what could have happened for his inattentiveness.

"What are you doing here?" Kurama asked, choosing to ignore the other's comment.

"You didn't think I'd notice you crossing the border everyday?" the fire demon snorted. "I was sure I was being discreet, I even hid my Ki" the kitsune replied, his previous surprise masked by a calm expression.

Unimpressed, Hiei retorted, "You can't hide from me fox."

Kurama sighed resigning to the fact that Hiei had a Jagan, he replied tiredly, "No I suppose I can't." Temporary silence fell between them before Kurama spoke again. "You've been following me," he stated when the body in front of him went rigid, "Why?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes before responding, "Suspicion," he answered simply. At that, Kurama was at a loss of what to think but he narrowed his eyes in response, "Of what, Hiei?" He wasn't very amused to be suspected by his best friend.

"Lost." the Koorime replied.

"Lost?"

"Hn."

"Hiei, that doesn't answer anything." He wasn't very amused and not in the mood for whatever Hiei was doing. Not today, not when it was his day to finally say goodbye to Kuronue.

"You fox, **you** looked lost." Hiei specified with a sharp tone. "Me?" a red brow rose, urging Hiei to elaborate. Hiei kept his eyes narrowed, "You looked lost coming back and forth." he stated a tad bit harsher, mainly from having to explain further than at Kurama.

Kurama, in turn, blinked, finally understanding. Was Hiei worried?

"Oh. . . ." Kurama muttered briefly before he tore his eyes away and back to the pendant still peering back at him. "I'm fine Hiei, this was just something I've been meaning to do."

"You didn't do it the first times." Hiei's tone was sharp, almost sounding accusing. Kurama narrowed his eyes back at Hiei almost in a glare. If he was never allowed to pry into Hiei's business, Hiei had no place doing the same to him.

"I'm doing it now," Kurama calmed his expression leaving only a fragment of anger there, "and I'd like to finish." Expecting the fire demon to leave him to his affair, he was surprised when his friend chose to stride over to him instead.

The fire demon knelt down next to Kurama and reached out to cover the pendant before turning to face the surprised Kitsune, "You have."

The fox's eyes bore into the area where he had just seen the pendant so clearly, feeling a nostalgic sense of loss as he continued to stare. This was what it felt like to say goodbye.

Light fingers traced over the area where the pendant laid as his eyes threatened to blur with tears as he terribly willed himself not to. A strong hand grasped surprisingly gently at his wrist, "It's over Kurama."

It was then he'd seen he had misjudged Hiei's presence and notion for being there. Giving in to the fire demon's comfort and accepting he'd only ever let Hiei see him like this, he turned to face the ground before him where Kuronue lay.

Reaching into his hair to pull out a seed and gesturing for Hiei to let him go, he brushed the dirt where the pendant laid off and planted it there. Covering it this time, he fed it his Ki and watched as a beautiful but deadly dark velvet purple flower grew. This would ensure that no one would ever disturb the treasure that belonged to Kuronue and to him only.

"Goodbye Kuronue."

-

They walked back towards the border together in silence. In light of seeing the border, Kurama exhaled, as if dispelling the negative and broody air around him to give Hiei a small but sad smile.

"I should get back, I must have been worrying my mother for days."

"Hn." the fire demon responded with his trademark grunt.

Kurama turned, giving Hiei his back view, "Goodbye Hiei.", he smiled ruefully. Just as he was about to cross the border, the voice he expected to accept his absence, spoke. "Kurama."

He stopped and turned his head over his shoulder.

"Goodbye is only temporary."

Green eyes widened briefly before a calm and real smile went over his face, knowing Hiei meant that for Kuronue and the fire demon himself, "Yes, Hiei, it is."

-


End file.
